Loyalty
by 70mb
Summary: Sometimes things simply aren't clean cut, which can be a problem when deciding whether to save someone, or damn them. Gen- no pairings, reviews always welcome
1. Chapter 1- Meet the Team

The train that sped through the desert at high noon was not only completely automated, but carried only supplies and a single passenger. This passenger was sitting, swinging their legs and staring out the window across from them at the scenery that sped past.

Without having been told, most would never know from looking that this person was a woman. Short, strong and heavily built, she was wrapped up from head to toe in a bright red, fire-proof suit and hid her face safely behind a full-head gas mask decorated to look like a skull. Lying across several seats next to her was her beloved flamethrower, her prized possession. She had insisted on having it shipped along with her instead of it being mailed ahead with the rest of her belongings. She looked at it lovingly, Diablo, it was called. A simple name? Yes. A bit obvious? Maybe. Fitting? Most definitely.

She fidgeted, bored almost to tears. The Pyro had been on this train for what seemed like an eternity. Her employers had decided to transfer her to a different base a week ago and she hadn't been in battle since. The fact that once she finally arrived at her destination and got settled in, she would get to fight again made the two or three hours left on the train all the more agonizing.

The Pyro lived for battle, for the blood and burnt bodies, for the explosions, the chaos, the terror and the thrill of unleashing Diablo's hellish inferno. She had been working for Reliable Excavation Demolition for long enough that it was hard for her to discern exactly how many years it had been, although this was partly because she honestly didn't care. The Pyro was an easy to please woman: give her food, a few matches and something to burn and she'd never have any complaints, a fact that her employers knew and took advantage of frequently.

For the rest of the train ride she distracted herself by alternating between watching the desert scenery, fiddling with Diablo, and flicking a lighter while spacing out – thinking of all the battles she would have in this new base with her new team.

Finally, FINALLY the train pulled to a stop and let out an ear-splitting whistle to alert her new team of its arrival. The doors opened with a hiss a little further down the car and the Pyro couldn't get out fast enough. Once outside, she found herself on a dusty wooden platform surrounded on three sides by the endless expanse of desert. On the fourth side were cliffs, several groups of structures and the terrain that separated them; undoubtedly the RED and BLU bases and the battlegrounds in-between. She looked up, the sky here was huge and impossibly blue, stretching infinitely in every direction and bearing down on her. Pyro almost felt like that sky might swallow her up and drown her if she stared at it for too long.

Feeling a bit dizzy she turned her attention back to the bases. Someone from the RED base would be along in a moment or two to collect her and the supplies, as had happened the last time she had been transferred. She shifted uneasily, this was all taking so long! And not only had she been forced to bear the previous week of cease-fire in order to get herself ready for the transition, now she had to wait out another five whole days of peace and non-violence here while she got settled! Oh the injustice! She'd happily give up a few meals or sleep on the floor, outside even, if it meant she could fight sooner, but the Administrator had decreed a cease-fire and a cease-fire there would be.

It was a few minutes of boredom and foot-scuffing later that she heard a shout behind her and turned to look. A little silhouette was running towards her, hopping around and waving its arms as it came. She tilted her head curiously and watched the little figure, clearly this team's Scout, with interest. It didn't take the runner long at all to reach the platform and once there he hopped straight up onto it, not even bothering with the stairs.

The Scout was lean and wiry like the sprinter he was. His skin was a shade of brown that reminded the Pyro of milked coffee, and he had discarded his uniform hat somewhere, revealing his short, soft-looking and very curly black hair. He looked her up and down for a moment as she examined him in return and then he fixed her with a goofy smile, revealing that he was missing a tooth on the upper-left side of his mouth. "Hey there new guy! I bet they briefed you on everything already right? Well I'm the Scout, in case you couldn't tell. I'm pretty tough so if anybody gives you a hard time you can tell me an' I'll sort 'em out okay?" He spoke in a way that led her to believe in his sincerity, although his scrawny figure didn't put much behind his assurances. She nodded all the same however, and said thanks. "Right okay then, um… oh yeah! The Engie and Heavy are comin' in the truck to get the supplies and shit outta the train so they should be here in a minute. If ya like new guy, when we get back to base I could show ya around and all that, I know everybody and where everything is so it'll be a breeze for me. Whaddya say?" He looked at her with what could only be described as puppy-dog eyes and she couldn't help but laugh. When she finally gave him a thumbs up, a tremendous grin spread across his face and he replied with an exaggerated "Sweet!"

The excited Scout paced around next to her and chattered endlessly for the next several minutes, hardly even stopping to breath. He single-handedly filled the surrounding desert's silence with sound, an impressive feat, and although the Pyro wasn't a very chatty person she found she didn't really mind. He didn't seem to expect any kind of reply from her and she found the noise was a nice change from the silent train ride, not to mention the boy's energy was contagious. Eventually the sound of a truck engine rumbled its way to them from out in the distance and was accompanied by a pleased chirp from Scout "Finally!" The truck responsible for the sound pulled up a moment later. It was an old beat-up Ford that was leaning rather severely to one side, in fact with the shape it was in she was surprised the heap of junk ran at all. The smashed up thing looked like it had been through a demolition derby and among many other dents and anomalies a thick coating of dirt, areas of rust and a huge amount of wear and tear made it hard to tell exactly what color the paint was supposed to be, although Pyro guessed some type of brown, or red... or green maybe.

The doors swung open with a hideous screech and two men got out. The truck's driver was a small, but stocky man with a white cowboy hat, goggles, steel-toed cowboy boots and the uniform overalls and shirt of the RED team Engineer. The person in the passenger side was undoubtedly the Heavy Weapons Guy. When he got out of the truck it groaned piteously and the lean righted itself. The Heavy was huge and apparently disliked being crammed in a pickup that was far too small for him. He stretched his arms and popped his neck and back before giving the truck a disdainful look.

He wore his uniform with rolled up sleeves and for the most part the only thing that really stood out was a stupid looking umbrella hat that she suspected was to keep the sun off his shaved head. Pyro wondered if anyone had ever given him trouble over it and glanced at the Scout, who was now excitedly bouncing up and down in place.

The pair walked over to the platform and were greeted halfway by the aforementioned Scout. "Jeez guys could you be slower? What, did you have to hotwire the car to get the piece a shit movin'?" This comment gained only a slightly raised eyebrow from the Engineer and a snort from the Heavy.

"Little boyscout is not wrong in this, truck wouldn't start. Had to have Sniper use jumping cables," rumbled the giant. He turned his attention to the Pyro and she silently hoped that he wouldn't be as ill-tempered as the last Heavy she had worked with. That man had had one of worst temperaments she had ever seen and Pyro had felt lucky every time she survived a conversation with him. "This is new Pyro?" he asked, looking at Scout for confirmation.

"Hell yeah, big guy! I'm gonna show him around the base when we get back!" The Scout nodded decisively, his obvious excitement earning him a chuckle from the Engineer.

"So long as you don't tire the poor fella out kid," he replied in a drawl as smooth as silk. He walked up to the Pyro, tipped his hat and extended a hand for her to shake, "Pleasure to meet you mister, I'm the Engineer, but most everyone calls me Engie for short. I hear from the Administrator that your train ride was a long one and I figure you're pretty tired, but I'd be grateful if you could help load the supplies into this here truck." Pyro nodded and gave his hand a firm shake. "Thank you kindly," replied Engie.

For a moment she thought about telling them that she was a woman, after all there was no rule that said she had to keep it a secret, but when she looked through her pockets and the pouch on her belt for her little notebook and pencil she found them gone. _Must have packed them without thinking_. Communicating was really difficult without them due to how severely the mask muffled her voice and she decided that she would tell them later, once she had proven her worth in battle. Naturally the idea of simply taking off her mask didn't occur to the slightly off-kilter Pyromaniac.

The Heavy was still regarding her and once he was apparently satisfied he nodded, "Hopefully new Pyro will not be little baby man like last." With this comment he moved over to the train and started to load the supply crates into the bed of the pickup. This was a strange thing to say though, and Pyro tilted her head questioningly, looking between Engineer and Scout, hoping for an explanation.

"Pssh, as if. I can tell you ain't a pansy like the last guy huh new guy?" the Scout gave the Pyro a friendly slap on the shoulder and ran off the help the heavy, who delicately gave the smaller man the lightest box he could find.

Exasperated, the Pyro fixed her confused look on Engie, who gave a smile in return, "Our last Pyro, the guy you're replacing, had a nervous breakdown and was retired. Don't worry about it too much though, just take it easy and get used to everything here, alright?" He smiled at her encouragingly and said, "Now, come on it'll be sunset in an hour or so and the faster we get this junk loaded up, the faster we can get back to base and have some grub."

The easy-going Texan trotted mildly over to the train with Pyro on his heels and with everyone working on it, the red-clad mercenaries got the truck loaded up in just a little over fifteen minutes.

The pickup had only two seats, so the Pyro opted to ride in the bed of the truck with Diablo and the crates rather than sit on Heavy's lap, a decision that pleased them both. The Scout meanwhile, ran ahead with a wave and the exclamation, "I can get back twice as fast as that piece a shit! I'll save ya some chow newbie!" She snorted at this, wondering how long he intended to call her that.

The base was about a ten minute drive from the train station, which, if one included the time required to get the damn truck started, took about twenty minutes altogether. Pyro, sitting in the bed of the truck with Diablo across her lap, watched as the dust bloomed out behind them and hung in the air like smoke. She found herself mesmerized by it. The vast sky and endless sea of dust surrounding her made her think of just how small she was, even the Heavy seemed small in comparison. If she let her mind wander, she could imagine that the dust was just like real smoke, thick and black, and she saw the huge blue sky lit up with orange. The imagery of the burning desert eased her almost ever-present tension, if only a little. A release she was glad for.

They had piled the crates mostly towards the driver's side to try and balance out the Heavy and give the truck a little break. The Pyro herself sat almost in the center of the bed, running her hands idly over the flamethrower as she was jostled around by the truck's poor suspension. She had built Diablo herself, although RED had provided blue-prints for her. She had built it herself and knew everything about it, every little quirk it had and how it behaved. Pyro had been transferred twice before this and it almost didn't matter if she had made friends or enemies on her previous teams, because in the end Diablo was the only one still with her, the companion that she frequently trusted her life to. She smiled beneath her mask as she inspected the weapon for what had to be the hundredth time that day, but was pulled from her thoughts by the looming silhouette of RED base and the Engineer's call of "Just about here Pyro, welcome to Gold Rush!"

The three mercenaries drove through a gate and the truck came to a sputtering, wheezing halt next to a camper van that seemed to be in ten times better condition. Pyro hopped down out of the truck bed with Diablo and looked around at the buildings that surrounded her. They were mostly wood, as all RED base structures seemed to be, and that ever-present dust clung to every surface. The Heavy and Engineer piled out and over to her. "I figure you'd rather have a look around with Scout than help us lug in these crates, so how 'bout we go on inside and see if we can find the kid, hmm?" asked the Engineer as he motioned her to follow, she did, but a glance back showed her that the Heavy had already started unloading the crates into a pile on the ground.

She followed the Engineer in silence as he led her into a large building, through a few corridors, and up a flight of stairs. He ducked through a few doorways on the way down the hall, looking for Scout, and stopped as they passed a door left slightly ajar. A deep frown set itself across his lips and he peaked around in the dark room before shutting the door. It clicked as he shut it and he jiggled the handle before turning back to the hallway and his charge. Pyro tilted her head at him and he rubbed his hand up under his hat with a light sigh. "Don't worry about it buddy, that door's just supposed to stay locked is all. T'aint no big deal."

He glanced around the hall before heading off in the direction they had been going before he stopped. "The jack-rabbit'll probably be in the rec room or the canteen," he muttered, more to himself than to the woman who shadowed him in silence. The pair trotted up another flight of stairs and down a hallway, before stopping in front of a battered wooden door, behind which the sound of loud voices could be heard. The Engineer turned and flashed Pyro a smile, "this here's the rec room, most of us like to stay in here or in the canteen when we ain't in a fight." He explained. Pyro nodded and Engie turned back towards the door and opened it without further ado.

Inside the room was a television, several old-looking pieces of furniture including a couch, a couple arm chairs and a card table. There was also a billiards table, a few sparsely filled bookshelves, a record player, and several men and a woman lounging, watching two of their comrades rolling around on the floor, yelling and trying to brain each other with anything they could get their hands on. Perched on the arm of the couch and cheering for one of the men to, "bust his teeth in!" was the Scout.

Heads turned when the two newcomers entered the room and while one man wearing a red suite and balaclava went back to leaning against the wall and watching the fight with an amused expression, the other; a tall, lean woman with aviators and a slouch hat, looked the team's newest member over with relaxed interest.

Next to Pyro, Engie sighed and headed over to the pair of wrestling mercenaries. Pyro herself, paused a moment and then headed over to the couch upon which the cheering Scout was perched. She leaned Diablo and herself against the couch's back and propped her chin up on her hand, watching the fight and Engie's futile attempts to attract the two brawlers' attention. Pyro bet that they'd stop fighting if she gave them both a puff from Diablo, but after some consideration, she decided that, while a good way to introduce yourself to an enemy, it probably wouldn't go over so well with allies.

After a moment the Scout noticed the masked woman and fixed her with his 500 watt smile, "Hey! Ya made it here with ya head still attached, congrats!" His friendly smile turned impish, "five bucks says Demo knocks Solly out cold!"

In all likelihood, Demo was short for Demoman , but she didn't really want to hazard a guess about Solly. "Solly?" asked Pyro, tilting her head quizzically, although through her gas-mask the question came out sounding more like 'shrrry?'.

Scout paused a moment before realizing what she meant. "Oh yea, Solly's short for Soldier, he's the guy with the helmet. So you on or what?" he asked, hand outstretched. Pyro thought this over and decided that a man in a helmet was probably less likely to get knocked out than a man not wearing a helmet. She nodded and shook Scout's hand, causing him to grin and cheer the Demoman on even louder.

The fight lasted about another minute, in which time the one-eyed black man, sporting cornrows and a headband, presumably the Demoman, landed a nasty elbow to the other man's jaw and received a broken nose in return. Finally fed up, Engie pulled his wrench out of his belt and called out over the racket, "the next fella to take a swing is getting a whack! Y'all hear me?!" This stopped both men dead. Now that they were holding still, Pyro saw that the Demoman seemed a little better off than the Soldier: sporting only a severely bloody nose and a cut under his remaining eye. His helmeted opponent looked as though he was quickly developing a brilliant shiner and had his own bloody nose accompanied by a split lip and a few other bruises.

The Demoman jumped to his feet and snarled at the Engineer. "THIS bloody idiot," he jabbed a finger at Soldier accusingly, "threw out me last bottle of scrumpy!" "He didn't even drink it, he just poured it out on the ground!" The Demoman continued to roar at the Engineer and Soldier through his blood and a slight Scottish accent (seriously, where did RED get all the black, Scottish, one-eyed demolitions experts? This was the third she had met. Was there a union or something?) until the Engineer held up his hand to silence the enraged man.

Engie turned to look at Soldier, "and what do you have to say for yourself Sol? I'm guessing there was a reason."

When Soldier spoke to defend himself the Demoman grinned triumphantly while Pyro, Scout, Engie and the other two spectators all winced in unison. Soldier's jaw clicked alarmingly as he moved it and he grimaced in pain, "IT'S A VIOLATION OF THE ADMINISTRATOR'S RULES TO DRINK WHILE ON DUTY!" Pyro was actually quite impressed that he could still be so loud considering that his jaw was so obviously busted.

"I'm not on duty and neither are you! It's a cease-fire ye damned nutjob!" Demoman snarled in response.

The Engineer sighed and looked at Soldier, "you know he has a point Sol." Soldier started to protest, but was cut off by an absolutely withering look from Engie, "I don't want to hear you talk anymore with your jaw clackin' like that," he turned to the Scout, "go find the Medic and tell him what's goin' on." Scout's own protest was also cut off, but this time by the Engineer snapping, "GET!" Scout got.

An uneasy silence fell over the group until Scout's return several minutes later. He came jogging into the room followed by a tall, blond man with a hawkish countenance and an extremely annoyed expression. The pair were also followed by the Heavy, apparently finished unloading the crates, meaning that this single room now contained the entirety of the RED team.

The Medic shook his head when he strode in and saw the bloodied mercenaries sitting on the floor and pointedly _not_ looking at each other. "Unbelievable," he sighed. "Is it really so hard to go for a few days wizhout trying to murder somevon?" The thickness of the man's accent was surprising and if his English were more broken Pyro might say it was even worse than the Heavy's.

Demoman grinned triumphantly once more when he was the first to receive the Medi Gun's healing rays, causing the Soldier to bellow in protest, "WHY DOES HE GET HEALED FIRST?! HE'S NOT EVEN AMERICAN!"

Medic arched his eyebrows, "neizher am I dummkompf. Besides, he's bleedink all over zhe carpet." Off to the side, Engineer sighed and pushed up his goggles in order to rub tiredly at his eyes.

"Well I figure since we've got all y'all in the same room we may as well just introduce the Pyro here." He looked at her as if asking whether she minded and continued speaking when she simply gave a one-shouldered shrug. He introduced each person by class title, even the ones she had already met, and they, in turn made some sort of greeting.

The last person introduced to her was the Medic, now healing the Soldier. "Pleased to meet you, and before I forget I vill need to schedule an exam for you." Pyro held little fondness for doctors and tensed visibly at this, gaining a scoff from the German. "Calm down, idiot. It's just to make sure everyzhing checks out. You von't even have to have zhe Uber-surgery."

This was followed by a shrill chorus of "why not?!" from several people in the room. Scout even piped up further by saying, "the hell Doc? Why don't he have to get it like everybody else?!" The Medic rolled his eyes.

"Did any of you even listen to zhe Administrator's briefink? He's already had zhe procedure."

"Come to think of it, the Administrator did say he was a transfer from another base didn't she?" Engineer chuckled sheepishly, "kinda slipped my mind a bit."

The Spy pulled a cigarette out of his case/disguise kit and finally spoke up after remaining silent so far, "good, zen 'e should be slightly less incompetent than we expected. 'ow reassuring." He then stuck the cigarette between his lips and started digging in his pockets for his lighter.

"Aw, no need tah be rude Spook, for all you know he coulda been working fer RED long before you got started," put in the Sniper with a kind, but slightly impish smile playing across her lips.

Demo chuckled, "aye, but I'd say just about anyone would'a been workin for RED longer than Casper the unfriendly ghost here. What's it been now, eight months laddie?" The visible parts of Spy's face turned a shade of red that almost matched his balaclava and he scowled as he focused on finding his lighter.

This line of thought seemed to peek the curiosity of the Scout, "say newbie, how long you been working for RED anyhow?" He tilted his head in a way that made Pyro think of a parrot.

Honestly, she really didn't feel like answering this last question, it was totally irrelevant, so she tried to think of a way to change the subject. Oddly enough, she was saved by the one man who had shown the least amount of interest so far, the Spy.

He seemed unable to find his lighter and he let out an annoyed curse that caught his teammates' attention. "Spy looks like his fancy suit is full of many ants," observed the Heavy with raised eyebrows. The Spy shot him a dirty look and made a visible effort to try and relax, letting out a deep, even breath and holding his next inhale for a few seconds.

"I was sure I 'ad my lighter less zhan an hour ago, I don't suppose anyone 'as seen it in zee meantime?" he asked in a voice that projected forced calm. Everyone in the room shook their heads almost in unison. He frowned and stuffed his hands into his pockets, brow knitted, "it was a gift, if anyone finds it please let me know. It's silver, wizh and engraving of twin guns."

The Demoman trotted over to him and slung his arm around the thinner man's shoulders, "Don't worry about it too much laddie, ya probably just left it somewhere an' it'll turn up eventually." The Spy grimaced.

Beneath her mask she smiled, his expression was funny and she imagined a squiggly line appearing above his head like it did in newspaper comics. Pyro reached into the pouch on her belt and pulled out one of her lighters – the cheapest – and tossed it over to the exasperated Spy. He caught it and blinked in surprise before regaining what was left of his composure and lighting his cigarette. Overall, his air was not unlike a cat who has just been caught doing something ridiculous.

Pyro turned back to the Scout and asked, slowly in order to make her words easier to understand, "you were gonna show me around weren't you?"

After the few seconds it took him to decipher what she'd said, the Scout flashed his huge, gap-toothed smile, "Oh Yeah! Thanks for remindin' me!" He ran over to the door, "come-on whatcha waitin' for?!" Pyro smiled and then remembered that he couldn't see it, so she gave him a thumbs up instead and followed Scout out of the room with a farewell wave to the others.


	2. Chapter 2 - Compulsions

**Author's Notes: for future reference, this: *** means a time lapse and this: #### means a change in POV.**

**Also, there will be swearing in this, hence the T rating.**

* * *

The Pyro had ended up spending most of her first day being dragged around the base by Scout and while she appreciated the tour, by the time she finished that, had her medical exam, got herself entered into the base's Respawn system and finally got back to her new room she was thoroughly worn out. After shedding all her various garments and searching around in the boxes of her belongings (mostly weapons) for her pajamas, she flopped unceremoniously onto her freshly made up bed with a sigh.

She lay in the dark for a long time, exhausted but unable to sleep, jittery. Finally giving up after an hour or two, Pyro sat up angrily and glared down at her hands. She couldn't actually see them in the dark, but she could feel the tremor that ran through them. It had been too long since she had been on the battlefield and she couldn't relax. The Pyro knew she wouldn't be able to sleep as wound up as she was, she needed to fight or to burn something.

With a sigh she flicked her bedroom light on and looked around at her room. It was mostly empty save for a few cardboard boxes in one corner, an extremely sturdy wooden-frame bed, a battered-looking dresser and a metal wastebasket. Pyro always kept lots of old newspapers around for this reason and she grabbed a few of them from a box. After dumping them into the wastebasket she proceeded to re-dress herself and trot tiredly out of her room and outside with the trash can and papers.

There was no way she was going to burn anything inside the base, the whole damn place was made of wood and just because she was a pyromaniac didn't mean she wasn't safety conscious. Besides, burning down the base on the first day probably wouldn't be making a good impression on her teammates.

The vast blue sky from earlier that day had turned ink black and was filled to the brim with stars and she stared up at them in awe as she walked through the nighttime landscape. She only set down the wastebasket and newspapers once she was a safe distance from the buildings and surrounded by desert, a short five minute walk. Pyro sat down in the dirt in front of the basket; legs crossed, and took out the papers, stacking them neatly beside her. Taking off one of her gloves and holding her hand up for a moment informed her that there was little to no wind, perfect.

The newspapers burned beautifully and the darkness of her surroundings only enhanced the brightness of the fire. It lapped and played about the torn pieces of paper as she watched, entranced. As she viewed the slow incineration of the newspapers, she felt all her pent up tension bleed away from her. This was only a little fire, not nearly enough, and undoubtedly all the tension would be back with a vengeance tomorrow. Despite this knowledge whispering in the back of her mind, she enjoyed the hell out of the little inferno before her.

Pyro sat in the dark with the entrancing basket of flames for almost an hour before she finally ran out of fuel and had to pack everything back up. Once this was done she headed back to her room and, after changing back into her pajamas, once again flopped onto her bed and this time fell asleep almost instantly.

Despite her repeating this routine for the next several nights however, her tension slowly built more and more every day that she wasn't in battle.

On the second to last day of cease-fire Pyro, having slept in severely, stepped into the canteen at about 12:30 pm, yawning and in desperate need of some coffee. She nodded in response to several versions of "good morning," spoken in various accents and dialects and made a beeline to the counter. Must Have Caffeine. Unfortunately, according to Sniper, the coffee machine was busted. Shit. Coffee was important though and won out over laziness, resulting in her having to settle with making it the old fashioned way.

More problems arose when she discovered that there was no kettle, it was her own fault really for expecting the base to be properly stocked for anything other than battle. With a sigh of annoyance she grabbed a pot, filled it with water and set it on the stove to boil.

The Reds were all sitting at a few bulky, indestructible-looking, cafeteria style tables eating lunch and chatting, obviously all having been awake for some time. The Pyro noticed upon closer inspection that the Soldier and Scout were missing. She walked over to the group, scribbled her question down on her trusty notepad and showed it to them.

**Where are Soldier and Scout?**

Heavy was the first to respond, "Little baby Scout make Soldier angry. Went to do laps in yard, should be done soon." He spoke matter-of-factly, apparently this was not an all-together uncommon occurrence with the pair.

Several others nodded in agreement and the Demoman shook his head ruefully. "Aye, the lad just can't keep his mouth shut."

"I vould sew it shut myself if I could find somezhink strong enough to hold," added the Medic, prompting a round of laughter from the others. Pyro laughed as well and went back over to the stove.

Only a few minutes later the aforementioned Scout burst through the canteen door, not at all worse for wear, and zipped over to the fridge. "Jeeze, I figure that asshole gets off on punishing people. He's definitely got some kinda kinky-ass fetish for it or somethin' ya know?" He asked to no-one in particular, and took the lack of response as an invitation to continue, "I swear, the guy must have some freaky crush on me too, he's always on my case!" The chatterbox affected what passed as a surprisingly good imitation of Soldier's voice, "YOU WILL NOT BE ON MY BATTLEFIELD LOOKING LIKE SUCH A HIPPIE! YOU WILL PUT ON A HELMET, STAND UP STRAIGHT AND KISS ME YOU OH SO DASHING ROGUE!" The Scout threw his arms around himself and pretended to make-out sloppily with someone invisible, his goofy performance earning him raucous laughter from his fellow mercenaries.

Just then the real Soldier burst into the room and gave Scout a look so intense that Pyro half expected the boy to burst into flames, part of her hoped he would, just for the fire. "KNOCK THAT STUPID NONSENSE OFF BOY OR I WILL KNOCK IT OFF FOR YOU!" The Scout crossed his arms and glared defiantly while the other mercenaries tried to stifle their giggles with varying degrees of success. The Pyro leaned her back against the counter, preparing for the show.

The Soldier whirled to face the rest of his team, face almost as red as his uniform. Apparently all his little training session with Scout had done was serve to make the man righteously pissed off. "WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT YOU LADIES?! IS THERE SOMETHING FUNNY GOING ON? I'D LOVE IF YOU'D ALL LET ME IN ON YOUR LITTLE JOKE!" Behind Soldier's back Scout started making kissy faces, resulting in several of the other REDs grimacing in almost painful attempts to hold in their laughter. "YOU ALL ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A TRAINED, DISCIPLINED, UNSTOPPABLE FORCE! NOT A BUNCH OF TITTERING SCHOOL-GIRLS! THIS IS WAR GOD-DAMMIT NOT A PLAYGROUND! IF YOU DON'T SHUT YOUR RESPECTIVE TRAPS IN 0.2 SECONDS YOU WILL FIND YOURSELVES RUNNING LAPS FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIVES!" In response to this threat the Scout wiggled his ass in a disturbingly overdone fashion, dragged his hands down his body and mouthed _Take me I'm yours!_

The Pyro's resolve cracked and she burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. This failure to control herself landed her straight into the cross-hairs of Soldier's wrath. He advanced on her, face nearly purple with rage. "YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY ROOKIE? DO I LOOK FUNNY TO YOU?! WELL WE'LL SEE HOW FUNNY YOU THINK THIS IS WHEN YOUR LEGS ARE JUST BLEEDING STUMPS! NOT TO METION THAT YOU ARE LATE! I DON'T KNOW HOW THOSE LITTLE GIRLS OVER AT BLUE DO THINGS, BUT HERE AT RED WE GET UP AT 0700 SHARP! CEASE-FIRE OR NO!" He continued to yell and Pyro found that his voice had reached a volume and pitch where his words all bled together into nothing more than a buffeting wave of noise. He was scarcely feet from her now and still coming. She watched his screaming form with a kind of morbid fascination, riveted by the strange color of his face and his wild gesticulation.

Pyro didn't really care about the screaming, the time she had spent on the battlefield surrounded by the constant, deafening sound of war had desensitized her to it. But now the Soldier was mere inches from her as he jabbed her in the chest with his stubby finger. She looked down at that finger and contemplated the pros and cons of breaking it off and shoving it down the man's throat. He leaned into her face, flecks of spittle spraying the lenses of her gas mask.

_Personal space, cocksucker!_

He didn't back up, of course he didn't.

Furiously, she reached up and wrapped her fists in Soldier's jacket, causing him to look down at her in surprise. Before he could react further, with surprising strength given her small stature, she yanked the man forward and slammed her forehead into his nose. It broke easily with a loud and bloody crunch. He reeled backward, but she had yet to let go of him and took the opportunity to stamp down on his locked knee. She threw all of her body-weight into the movement and his leg gave immediately, bending backwards in a way that was just inherently wrong.

He fell to the floor and she grabbed the pot off of the stove before suddenly stopping. She was standing over Soldier, holding the pot of boiling water, about to pour it all over him. Suddenly a sick feeling congealed within her guts. Soldier was her teammate, asshole or no. A look down at her hands showed that the tremor was back, although now it had reached the point where it was more of a full body tremble. The water sloshed in the pot under the tremor's effects and shakily, Pyro set it back on the stove and stepped away from her injured colleague.

Still shivering with tension and poorly contained rage she exited the canteen at a near run.

####

Pyro had stopped paying attention to her other teammates at about the same time as she completely went off on one of them. Those same teammates where left dumbfounded in the canteen after she had left.

Fights were a routine occurrence here and often started because of Soldier. He had good intentions while at the same time, also possessed absolutely no patience. This trait meant that, despite his intentions, he often ended up in brawls with his fellows. They had all grown accustom to this and were normally quite good at breaking up these fights (although sometimes it was just too much fun to watch), after all it was easy to tell when they were about to start. Soldier would get a wild hair up his ass and go after somebody, that person would yell back, there would be a moment of posturing, some more yelling and then the fists would fly and somebody would usually step in.

That was not what had happened here and the break from normal routine had caught them all off guard. It was practically just a matter of etiquette that you were supposed to give some kind of warning before beating the ever-loving shit out of someone.

"Scout, go get zhe Medi Gun from zhe infirmary." Medic's tone was serious and Scout did as he was told without arguing. The doctor, who had slipped into damage-control mode, turned to the rest of his team as Scout ran out the canteen's doors and in the direction of said infirmary. Medic looked to the group in front of him and commanded, "Heavy I vant you to go keep an eye on zhe Pyro, I don't vant anyzhink furzher to happen." The Heavy nodded.

"I think it'd be a good idea for me to go too Doc. Maybe I can calm the fella down a bit," piped up the Engineer. The Medic nodded mutely and went over to the Soldier to inspect the man's injuries. Taking that as a sign that the doctor didn't require anything else from them, the pair of REDs left the canteen to try and find the Pyro.

A task which took less time than they had thought as the Pyro was only a few hallways down, rummaging through a storage closet. He looked up as the pair approached him guardedly. The way he had beat up Soldier, going from calm to vicious in a split second, was reason enough for caution. They didn't know him well enough to judge what may or may not set him off.

He watched them for a moment, eerie mask disguising whatever he might be thinking, before turning his attention back to the contents of the closet. Engie and Heavy shared a look and Engie took a step forward, moving as slowly as possible, and asked the Pyro, "whatcha lookin' for pardner?" The Pyro looked at him again, this time staring for long enough that Engie started to feel uneasy, before pulling that little notebook out of his pocket and scribbling on it. He showed it to them, moving suddenly enough to make the Engineer tense slightly.

**A shovel. **

"Shovel? What you wanting this for?" asked the Heavy, in as mild a tone as he could manage. He wasn't afraid of the little man who stood only half his height, but he also wasn't about to cause any more trouble if he could avoid it.

The Pyro regarded them for a moment, as if considering whether he wanted to elaborate or not. Finally, after a rather awkward silence, he sidled up to the pair and held out his hand. Heavy and Engineer exchanged another look and Engie hesitantly reached out to shake the hand, only to have it pulled back.

Pyro made an exasperated sound and re-extended the hand, clearly wanting something, but not to shake. After staring at his hand for a moment both of the men noticed something at almost the same time. Pyro's hand had a seriously bad tremor. Heavy cocked his head, "hand is shaking?" he asked hesitantly, unsure if this was what Pyro was getting at. Pyro nodded and pulled his hand back, looking at it himself for a moment before going back to the closet, apparently believing this was a good enough explanation. Engineer looked at Heavy with a quizzical expression, asking silently, _You got any idea what he's on about?_ The Heavy, equally confused, shrugged his massive shoulders in reply.

Engineer considered the situation seriously. The Medic wanted them to keep an eye on Pyro and Pyro was clearly up to something, so the question at this point was, 'Is that something dangerous?' Engineer frowned and glanced at the Heavy, Pyro was unarmed so the big guy could probably put a stop to anything he did without much trouble. There was that and the fact that Engineer had a curious mind which automatically set to try figure out what the hell Pyro wanted with a shovel. Eventually, with the reassuring presence of the Heavy, curiosity won out. He looked at Heavy and took a step towards the Pyro, "there's an old trench shovel Sol don't use anymore in a closet downstairs. You can use it if ya like, but the catch is me an' Heavy are gonna be keepin' an eye on you alright?" The Pyro nodded and scribbled **Which closet?** and with a sigh Engineer led the way down stairs.

The Engineer guided the Pyro downstairs to the junk closet, Heavy lumbering along behind them. Once there, the Pyro dug into the closet without a word and, after several minutes of digging through old boxes and crates, he emerged triumphant; shovel in hand.

The pyrotechnician turned and made to wander off but was stopped when the Engie clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Wait a minute now, firebug, I wanna talk to ya." Pyro looked down at that hand silently for several seconds and both men noticed the way his grip on the shovel tightened ever so slightly. Engineer dropped the hand down and looped the thumb through his belt. "How 'bout telling us what you've got planned?" he said in his most chiding voice. The Pyro paused and after a moment, once again took out his little book, **Going out back.** The masked mercenary apparently didn't feel like sharing his plans, instead, playing coy and turning on his heel to trot off towards the hallway Engineer had lead him through on his first day.

Engineer sighed and Heavy gave him a sympathetic look before ambling ponderously after the pair's odd charge.

It was just after one, or so the Engineer estimated, which meant the sun was high and the desert air was hot and as dusty as ever. The Engineer and Heavy both had to stop for a moment when they were blasted by the sudden wall of heat that rushed through the door to the outside as Pyro opened it. While the Engineer was more used to the heat than the Heavy, the contrast from air-conditioned inside to high noon desert outside was an unpleasant one. Although, the one who should be the most bothered, Pyro in the rubber suit, seemed for the most part unperturbed by the sudden change in temperature. Instead he marched around to the back of the base, Heavy and Engineer in tow, with all the single minded focus of a man on a mission.

The next stop seemed to be the pile of junk wood and scrap that stood out behind the base. If something broke it was left out there. The wood pile was almost a foot taller than the Pyro himself, and came up to just above the Heavy's chest. It contained things like several logs and miscellaneous scrap wood such as broken furniture, crates and barrels. The two REDs watched their masked companion as he inspected the wood, picking things up, looking them over and putting them back or breaking bits off, inspecting those and then tossing them aside. After several minutes of this he loaded his arms with wood – overloaded even, as he had trouble walking without dropping things – and started loping out away from the base and into the desert. He looked around once he was about 50 yards from the main building and dropped his armful of wood before trotting back to the pile and starting all over again.

It was at the end of his fifth trip that the Engineer and Heavy offered to help. The Pyro, apparently taken aback, hesitated for a moment before loading up the other two with wood as well and grabbing his own armful. This assistance seemed to provide the required amount and the Pyro didn't make another trip back. Instead, he surveyed the terrain for a moment before choosing a relatively bare spot and dragging the end of the trench shovel through the dirt in a twelve or so foot circle and then repeating the process to make another ring around the first; the finished circles being about a foot apart.

The Heavy and Engineer were left to stand around and watch while the Pyro started digging inside the first circle with Sol's trench shovel. Heavy sighed and settled himself down on a nearby boulder, the only boulder in the area actually, leaving the Engineer standing. He stood for a minute, watched Pyro dig, and made some small talk with Heavy before eventually getting bored. "If we're gonna be stuck out here I'm gonna need a chair, mind watching that one while I'm at the base?" Engie asked, gesturing to the busy Pyro.

Heavy shrugged, "was doing this anyway." Then the larger man seemingly had an idea and his eyes lit up, "Perhaps if, while looking for chair, you become close to kitchen then you can grab sandvich from fridge?" the way he asked was nonchalant, as if he didn't really care either way, but Engineer had known him for a while and knew politeness and an attempt to avoid imposing on others, despite his enthusiasm, when he saw it.

He smiled and nodded, "sure thing hoss." With that, and one last glance back to the single-minded Pyro, he jogged back towards the base. He went through the building, relieved by the air-conditioned climate, in the direction of the canteen. On the way he passed the rec room and poked his head in when the shouts reached his ears.

The team was gathered with the exception of the Sniper, and obviously the Heavy and Pyro. Those that were there were lounging on the various pieces of furniture; watching a sports game (soccer, the cause of the shouting most likely and chosen undoubtedly by violent petition from Demo, Medic, and Spy), or playing cards. The Medic was the first to notice Engineer's presence, "how is zhe Pyro doing, Herr Engineer?" he asked mildly. Several of the others looked up, interested in Engie's response.

He rubbed his neck and shrugged, "alright I s'pose, he's got it in his head to dig a great big hole out back. Not a clue why, but at least he ain't causing trouble. Heavy's got an eye on him."

The Scout – playing Texas hold 'em with a newly uninjured Soldier and a Demoman who kept glancing at the television screen every few seconds – twisted in his chair to face the Engineer, unwittingly giving his opponents a peek at his cards. "The hell's he doin' that for? He gonna make a swimmin' pool or something?"

The Spy didn't need to turn and face his comrades for them to know he had rolled his eyes, they could hear it in his voice, "zhat's an idiotic idea."

"I don't know if he's got the plumbing skills for it, but I'd be impressed if that's what it turns out to be." was Engineer's serene reply before turning to look over the Soldier. "How ya doin Sol?" he asked after a moment.

"HA! AS IF I WERE SISSY ENOUGH TO LET A COUPLE BROKEN BONES PUT ME DOWN. I'M AN AMERICAN!" was the assured response while the Soldier happily cleaned the Scout out. Taking that as an _"I'm fine, thanks for asking." _Engineer nodded and resumed his journey to the canteen.

After another minute or so he reached his destination and pushed the door open. As he did so the unmistakable scent of clove cigarettes, akin to burning potpourri, hit him. He wrinkled his nose and glanced at the ash tray on one of the tables where the cigarette in question lay, still burning slightly. Engineer sidled over to it and crushed it into the tray with a grumble of "damn spy could at least put it out" before going over to the fridge and popping it open. He grabbed Heavy's sandwich – which, as delicious looking as it was, undoubtedly only remained unmolested due to the fact that it was _Heavy's_ sandwich – along with the six (or rather four and two empty slots) pack of beer from the bottom shelf before snapping the fridge shut again.

He had made his way over to one of the tables and was grabbing a chair when someone came through the canteen door. He turned and saw it was just the Sniper. She wrinkled her nose just as he had and gave him a look, before stepping over to him and offering her hand for a shake, he took it and she smiled at him crookedly as she stepped back and leaned against the wall. "Haven't seen hide nor hair of ya since this mornin. How're Heavy an the bone-breaker doin?"

Engineer shrugged as he had before. "Fine, Pyro decided to dig a hole for some reason, can't say I know why."

Sniper nodded contemplatively, "maybe he's hot and wants ta make a pool." a thought that made Engineer laugh.

"That's what Scout thought too." Sniper grinned at this.

"Boy's pretty sharp then I'd say, you takin that stuff ta the Pyro then? I doubt the big guy'll be happy to see the sandwhich missin." she observed with a nod toward the food item in question.

"Probably not, 'cept he's the one who asked me to get it for him." Sniper shrugged and there was a silent pause for a moment. Engineer made to pick up the chair and orient it so he could carry everything at once. He nodded to the relaxed sharpshooter and was making his way towards the door when she came and held it for him, "thank you kindly ma'am" he said with another nod, he'd have tipped his hat if he had a free hand.

"Mind if I join ya?" he turned slightly to look at her and saw her normal grin looking a little sheepish. He smiled back at her and she perked up slightly.

"'course ya can, although I don't really see the attraction of watching somebody dig a hole."

She grinned, nodded, then grabbed a second chair from the table and followed him out with it. As an afterthought she added, "'s probably better than football. Oh, and don't call me ma'am; makes me feel like my mum."

"Yes ma'am," he respond with a little smirk, a remark that earned him a kick to the back of his leg. Damn, even her kicks were well aimed.

####

The kitchen was silent for a few moments afterward. A silence which was interrupted by a subtle hiss and a billow of smoke that appeared in the spacious corner between the refrigerator and the wall, which as it dispersed, revealed a man in a blue suit and navy balaclava. The BLU Spy let out a little chuckle, which edged more towards a girlish giggle. Lithely the Spy straightened up from where he had been leaning against the wall and strolled over to the ash tray on the table in order to retrieve his half used cigarette. He re-lit the clove and tobacco blend with a lighter engraved with twin guns before he meandered out of the room and off to snoop.


End file.
